MIXTURE & BALANCE
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a bunch of buttercups and violets, using twice as many of the latter, so that the eye sees an area of blue twice as great as the area of yellow-red. Area as a compensation for inequalities of hue, value, and chroma will be further described under the harmony of color in Chapter VII.
(78) But, before leaving this illustration of the buttercup and violet, it is well to consider another color path connecting them which does not pass through the sphere, but around it (Fig. 12). Such a path swinging around from yellow-red to blue slants down- ward in value, and passes through yellow, green-yellow, green, and blue-green, tracing a sequence of hue, of which each step is less chromatic than its predecessor.
This diminishing sequence is easily written thus,Y87, GY79, G65, BG54, B43, PB32,—and is shown graphically in Fig. 12. Its hue sequence is described by the initials Y, GY, G, BG; -B,: and PB32. Its An image should appear at this position in the text. value-sequence appears in the upper numerals, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3, while the chroma-sequence is included in the lower numerals, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. This gives a complete statement of the sequence, Achaing its peculiarity, that at each change of hue there is a regular decrease of value and chroma. Nature seems to be partial to this sequence, constantly reiterating it in yellow flowers with their darker green leaves and underlying shadows. In spring time she may contract its range, making the blue more green and the yellow less red, but in autumn she seems to widen the range, presenting strong contrasts of yellow-red and purple-blue.
(79) Every day she plays upon the values of this sequence,
